Specific Heat Measurement of High Temperature Thermal Insulations by Drop Calorimeter Method

Abstract

By applying the drop calorimeter method, a specific heat measuring apparatus that can be used in the temperature range from 100 to 1000°C has been developed. It is generally difficult to measure the specific heat of thermal insulation, because the insulation material is porous, and has low thermal conductivity and small heat capacity. In the present apparatus, the specific heat of thermal insulation is simply measured by dropping a heated specimen into water. The specific heat of the specimen obtained by the apparatus is the “mean” specific heat between the initial specimen temperature before dropping and the equilibrium water temperature after dropping. This apparatus was used to measure the mean specific heat of standard specimen SRM 720 Synthetic Sapphire (α-Al2O3) whose reference values are certified by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). The measured values agreed well with the reference values within an error of ±10%. The specific heats of SiC refractory material, rock wool, alumina silica fiber, alumina silica board, calcium silicate, and SiO2 glass measured with this apparatus are also presented.